Biographies
of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Assistant New York
Attorney General John Sipos.
Eliot Spitzer,
New York State Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer became
the state’s 63rd Attorney General on January 1, 1999. Since that time, he has
advanced initiatives to make New York a national leader in investor protection,
environmental stewardship, labor rights, personal privacy, public safety and
criminal law enforcement.
Spitzer’s
investigations of conflicts of interest on Wall Street have been the catalyst
for dramatic reform in the nation’s financial services industry.
His lawsuits against
Midwest and Mid-Atlantic power plants will help reduce air pollution
responsible for acid rain and smog in the Northeast.
His efforts to
curtail abuses in the green grocery industry have been hailed as landmark labor
rights cases.
His investigations of
internet companies and direct marketers have resulted in new privacy
protections for consumers throughout the nation.
His "code of
conduct" was the foundation for a settlement that reformed the way the
nation’s largest gun manufacturer designs and distributes handguns.
His prosecutions of
sophisticated white collar crimes have resulted in some of the nation’s largest
fraud recoveries.
Through these and
other initiatives, Spitzer is building the reputation of the Attorney General
as "the People’s Lawyer."
Spitzer brings
considerable experience to the office. He was a clerk to United State District
Court Judge Robert W. Sweet and, later, an associate at Paul Weiss, Rifkind,
Wharton, and Garrison.
He served as an
Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan from 1986-1992, rising to become Chief
of the Labor Racketeering Unit, where he successfully prosecuted organized
crime and political corruption cases. He also worked at the New York law firm
of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, and was a partner at Constantine
& Partners.
Spitzer has
contributed great time and energy to community service, serving on the boards
of various not-for-profit organizations.
Spitzer is a 1981
graduate of Princeton University and a 1984 graduate of Harvard Law School,
where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Spitzer and his wife, Silda,
also a Harvard Law School graduate, live in Manhattan with their three daughters,
and also maintain a home in Columbia County.
John
Sipos serves as Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York in the
Environmental Protection Bureau. He has
held a number of positions in the public and private sectors, and is currently
the Section Chief of the General Litigation Section in the Bureau’s Albany
Office. Mr. Sipos has successfully
defended New York State, its agencies and officers in state and federal courts
in several proceedings involving challenges to environmental regulations and
determinations. At the same time, he
has successfully brought enforcement actions against various individuals and
entities that have violated the State’s environmental regulations and also has
filed “friend of the court” briefs on behalf of the State in a number of cases
before the U.S. Supreme Court, the New York State Court of Appeals, and other
courts.
Mr. Sipos received
his B.A. from Tufts University in 1983 and his J.D. from New York University
School of Law in 1986. Following law
school, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Clarence C. Newcomer, a
United States District Court Judge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.